Thursday, November 20, 2014

Beyond the crafting and selling of items there are many aspects to being a maker-of-things that I absolutely did not expect but so enjoy.

At the top of that list is the connection and interaction that develops with many of our customers. The exchanges that go on beyond the transaction are often born out of the desire to share stories or experiences or just random thoughts on the world of faeries and possibilities. And these can create longstanding bonds that may extend for months or years.

I have grown to love and cherish these interactions so much.

Once in awhile we also are given the chance to share thoughts and messages that seem "fairy-sent"
and such was the case today when one of our customers, who recently purchased a fairy house from us, was remarking that she did not feel fairy spirits were likely present in her own home due to something she does that she believed would be a detraction to fairy spirits.

Because this "something" falls into the category that I would consider to be purely modern "human ideals" and more specifically a cultural idealism of the last 20 years or so, I felt inspired to send the following along to her. . . by the way, her message ended with the question "Are you truly believers?"

The reply:

Oh we are true believers!

And let us say that we do not think fairies discriminate against certain "earthly",human ideals There is, in the heart, something greater than human idealism that fairies are drawn to and, we believe, that intangible energy and heartfelt awareness is what creates that fairy presence around us.

Openness and a compassionate, welcoming heart. The desire to revisit or resurrect that magic of childhood or of any period of one's life where possibility and imagination ruled or were in our awareness. Even just the desire or the need to know that we are not alone here. . . . all of these things are, in our experience, the true portals to visitations and fairy magic.

There is an old ctale, Gaelic or Celtic I believe, that speaks of the "little man". A sprite who tends to move objects and personal items to places the owner realizes are out of place and often just moments after they have been set down! Even this type of sprite, which is among the most common of the "visitations" humans receive is usually presented to someone for reasons we cannot always fathom. But "they" know we are in need of some magic in this world and so it may appear in many different ways. Gentle nudges to our consciousness. . .

In YOUR world and your home, just be open to whatever comes and presents itself as a sign. The simplest things really. . . occurrences that you may have not even given a thought to before can be recognized as these visitations and signs. . . just stay open to the possibility as all of them are the doorways to deeper wonder and possibility. All of them come with no strings attached. . no more of a "price" than our belief and the space made in an open heart.

Perhaps even a message like this, though flown through the cyber-spaces from our fingertips, may in fact originate somewhere else and is "given" to us to pass along? Who can say really. . .

We hope THAT magic and possibility is what you find in everything that you see. ;)

nicolas

Now, I LOVE writing such messages. I love pulling people back to this side of the landscape and horizon. Sometimes I think it really is about just giving people permission to open up and believe.

That's what it took to get me to a place, after so many years, of believing I deserved to do what I do and be a maker-of-things and that I could be a vessel for that magic to enter this world. Now it seems like I cannot imagine a time when I did not know this or believe it as such. . . but it took countless gentle and not so gentle budges and impressions. Moments of being "steered" one direction or another to keep me on the path.

I have known since I was a child that I was indeed "watched over".

Once or twice in enormously life altering ways and then again, in dozens of those slight, imperceptible changes of direction along the way too.

And the purpose is, in my way of seeing it, always small. I was, for years, too caught in the grandiose ideals of my own life and purpose and not ready to see that the simplest and most natural of our abilities are often the roots of the greatest purpose we may have.

Thank you faeries for all the love and guidance in all the forms presented thru these years.

Tuesday, November 11, 2014

Finally getting these little gems out for the holiday too! I have made larger HO scale windmills for the past few years but really wanted to perfect these little ones for terrariums and indoor fairy gardens. I think this is the one! I already have a claim laid on this first one but am making three more this week. :) Of course, one can imagine the little spirits that would inhabit such a place, yes? And there is alegend in the listing about "turning mills" and how the helped a rather desperate bunch of fairies plot their freedom from a very still and un-magical imprisonment. :)

Monday, November 10, 2014

Even with the holiday coming far too quickly and custom requests piling up, I always make sure to take time and set it aside to create and finish pieces that are simply what my heart desires. Feeding the soul this way is the most important thing to avoiding any sort of burnout or the burden of overwhelming to-do lists and custom work. Nothing inspires me more than those precious hours. . .

The first piece is one I showed in progress awhile back but it sat here just waiting for the finishing inspiration. Those finishing touches came in the form of the two bluebirds and the treasure of "gold coins" and "jewels" in the tree hollow.

Dreamweaver Series #1

The bluebirds are made completely from polymer clay and no painting! A first fo me but I enjoyed the process

Also I undertook a redesign of my Onegai (Wish Granting) Jizo statues. I recently went back and looked at the evolution of these little statues over the last four years. Yikes! The first ones were really cute but so "rough" by comparison. I love the tiny, rotund bodies on these and the fact that the little bells on the hat actually tinkle! :) Definitely a Wish Granting form if ever I saw one! :)

Anyway, that's all for today but in the next few days I am excited to show you the first version of my hand-bound fairy journal! Includes foldout maps on the end pages, pressed flowers and lots of wonderful elf illustrations! All in a very magical 2" x 2.75" size:)

Thursday, November 6, 2014

So, not even a week into November and the holiday rush is here. . . I am inundated with custom orders already and it's still pretty early. . . . to make things seem even more off track this comes on the heels of a week long trip back to my childhood home.

This always stirs so many things inside.

I am, of course, thrilled to see my mother who, in her 80's is not going to be traveling across the country to see me any time soon. And, those of you who have read my blog probably know that I had a magical and very inspired childhood. . . so that should be a wonderful thing to return to, right?

Well, not always.

Here's the thing. . . there is, undoubtedly, a very strong pull to the landscape of my youth but, every time I return, I am reminded how lucky I was to have traveled and explored the larger world before settling into myself in my 20's. I imagine this is a fact of growing up in any strong cultural area but, when I return, more than the nostalgia of my childhood, there is the reminding of the angst of my teen years and the fact that often haunts me is this.

If I had not "gotten out" all those years ago, I would likely never have found my way to the work or the life I have now. So for all of the wonder of immersion back into those fields of imagined wonder, I struggle with the painful reminders of how limiting life there might have been if I had stayed. While most kids in their late teens and early 20's in that neighborhood were partying on the slag heaps of the abandoned steel mills or sitting on the train trestle, feet dangling 50 feet above the river, with liquor bottle in hand, I was working double shifts at an Italian restaurant saving money like mad for my first trip to Europe. A trip that changed my view on life forever. A trip that set me aside from that neighborhood and left me on the outside looking in forever more.

For the few friends of that childhood who I visit with when I return, when we see each other it is like no time has passed. They exclaim time and again "nicolas, you never change" and that, when I am home, they FEEL as if they are 12 again too. Funny to me because I am the one who really changed. .. . yet those times, when I return, are still as they were and not muddied with another 30 years of adulthood in the same landscape. Perhaps that is why, when I go home, I am able to pick up those days right where I left them?

I imagine there WILL come a day when I will be too old to throw that Nerf football around or chase wiffle balls and fireflies. When an excursion through the woods will be best left to manicured paths and level ground. When the lure of those earliest creations and indulgences in imagination will fade to the background. . . but it's hard to fathom now.

The hardest part of those trips back is that, in the time I have alone there, I find myself craving to also return to the games of my days spent in solitude. Which were many and more than those spent with friends.

In my youth, I and my imagination were always best on our own. That's changed too of course, and for the better, but in those days I looked forward to nothing more than the hours undisturbed to dive into the creations and games and worlds that lived only in my own head.

And those, as an adult, in that landscape, are harder to recapture. Maybe it's adult self consciousness or just a reverence for something I know can never be relived?

So I return to the here and now and the myriad of new worlds I have created and share with like souls out there. That I share here with you.

It's every bit as good as those days and, for the adult in me, it's better for the soul.

But the child is there too, neve changing, never far away.
Smiling and dreaming
At home
Eternally and blessedly unchanged
and always
young. . .

Bewilder and Pine on Etsy

Shadow of the Sphinx on Etsy

My Antarctica on Etsy

It never began, it seems it just always was. . .

Imagination has been my constant companion since I was a child.
Never far from me.
Never forgotten.
Now, after spending so many years trying to "balance" a life of inherent creativity with the adult definitions of what a life "should" or "must" be, I am going all in and forging a road unfamiliar.
Making a living through reimagining and reworking the impressions of childhood magik. Seeing the foundation, thru the distance of the years, that formed my own boyhood heart and realizing that, in the grand scheme of things, to not walk this road now would be the only possible failure of my lifetime. Basically, I've set out making a life out of pleasing that inner child every day.
Thanks for coming along,
nicolas